National Medical Report

Trigeminal neuralgia and other nerve-related facial pains affect people of all ages in every part of the world, constituting a silent epidemic that needs to be brought before the public. Frequent misdiagnosis results in high treatment costs, painful delays in finding expert help, personal and family stress, loss of time at work or school and disrupted social life. Suicide is well documented among patients who gave up on finding a way to stop or significantly relieve their excruciating, repetitive pain. Many patients have hopscotched from doctor to doctor, or dentist to doctor, and undergone multiple treatments with little or no impact on their pain. In some cases, inappropriate treatment has worsened the pain, causing confusion, anxiety and anger. Patients whose facial pain does not fit the established diagnostic criteria need to know where to begin to find reliable health-care information, advice and assistance.